Re: [Re: Pack behavior: just a thought ...]

[archosaur@usa.net]

Frank Galef <tyra-rex2@nctimes.net> wrote:
> I wonder how often modern reptiles injure limbs without necessarily dying
> as a result.  As  reptiles don't have a real high metabolism, they may be
> able to wait  a few months while a leg heals enough to hunt again.  An
> injured dinosaur may have been able to do the same.  It could have lived
> on fat stores and depended on no one else while healing.  This might
> re-ignite an endo versus exothermic debate.  Similarly, if it were a
> scavenger and had access to a sufficient food supply it may have been able
> to recuperate as long as it could avoid predators.  I suppose that going
> after smaller prey may still have been possible even with a broken leg.
> Again, alternate explanations may do an equal job of explaining an
> observation.  Even among modern mammalian pack hunters, injuries severe
> enough to limit mobility and feeding are usually fatal, so it may be tough
> to find enough healed fractures to prove anything, but keep trying.
> Frank
******************************************************************

Reptiles having an amazing knack to survive injuries that would normally kill
a mammals. Crocs have been seen with lower (and upper) jaws bitten off.
Tortoises have been seen surviving in the wild with no front legs whatsoever.
I wouldn't be too surprised if  deinosaurs survived with missing jaws or
broken legs.

Archosaur J


Jurassosaurus's Reptipage: A page devoted to the study of the reptilia..has
moved. You can now visit it at:

http://reptilis.webjump.com

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